Appointments

All consultations are by appointment, but if you need an urgent appointment or advice, you will be telephoned by a health care professional and dealt with appropriately. Appointments can be booked up to four weeks in advance.

You can make a GP appointment online [if you have registered to do so] or by telephoning between 8am and 6pm, from Monday to Friday. The surgery is usually closed at weekends and bank holidays.

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason, please inform us as soon as possible to allow us to give it to someone else.

Home visits
Wherever possible, we recommend you attend the surgery, as the facilities for examining you are much better and, moreover, any tests that might be needed can be easily arranged. If you or your child feel too ill to wait in the waiting room, the receptionist will show you to an examination room on arrival.

In a worse-case scenario, when you are unable to attend the surgery and require a home visit, please telephone before 10.30am, giving some indication of the problem, so that the doctor can plan his / her visit.

Sickness certificates
You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. However, your employer may require you to complete a self-certification form [SC2], which should be available from either them or the HMRC website.

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP [statutory sick pay].

It is up to your employer to decide whether you are incapable of work. A medical certificate, now called a Statement of Fitness for Work from your doctor is strong evidence that you are sick and would normally be accepted, unless there is evidence to prove otherwise.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, eg a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

You can request a sickness certificate/statement of fitness for work by filling out an E-Consult where you should get a response by the end of the next working day. https://accesshealthanddental.webgp.com/